they didn't say friggers Frank. They said 'fancy goods'. Could 'fancy glass' be their way of differentiating small items from plate glass/window glass, rather than making an assumption it means friggers? I'm interested in the coloured glass bit. There is an article herehttp://www.nailseatowncouncil.gov.uk/history.phpfrom the Nailsea Local History people, but again this might be just 'perpetuating myth', it mentions coloured glass and end of shift glass being made

quote ' Established on the open heath against the Nailsea / Wraxall border, John Robert Lucas initially built two cones – one for bottle making, the other for the production of window glass for the so-called Industrial Revolution. His works was to prosper under several partnerships, and by the mid nineteenth century had become the fourth largest glassworks in Britain covering some six acres between the Royal Oak Public House and Nailsea Park. Crown, cylinder and plate glass were produced, along with a limited amount of coloured. However, it was the “end of shift” domestic ware and novelty pieces made by the skilled and apprentice blowers that have accorded Nailsea glass its international recognition.

Following the collapse {1862} of the furnace Eyres records that “it was several years before the ‘Old’ house was again at work.” Subsequently “a little side furnace was built for one or two men to make fancy goods, such as propagators, cucumber glasses, rolling pins and glass shades.”

That is clear, I guess production items. First two for local farms/gardeners, then souvenir shops and lighting companies?

sorry to hear that m has been sic ........and Mike, what did you decide in the end.....keep your hat or flog it and give half to the charity shop Do hats come up on ebay, and if so what do they fetch money wise?? not that I'd ever sell mine.

not easy to make a comparison right now, as I'm sitting in a non-daylight type of electric light, but......I'd say the colour of my hat is identical to your pix of the 6th October showing the pane of crown window glass, the strap handled jug and the piece of cullet. As for the colour, I'd agree with Keith Vincent's description of "a pale green metal, the characteristic Nailsea colour" (for articles other than the bottles) - although as with all glass 'colours' this is open to some degree of personal interpretation, and can be variable depending on the thickness of the glass, but I think the match with my hat is o.k. as a pale watery green. As we've said before, the sand used at Nailsea appears to have been sourced locally (to Bristol), certainly in this factory's earlier period, to minimize transport costs - obviously when you're making utility articles economy is important, and maybe different 'sands' produce slightly differing colours, and this one is PERHAPS characteristic of the particular Nailsea source of sand. But on the other hand maybe most sands give something close to this when you aren't using the cleanest and most pure product with iron impurities.

Vincent's book categorizes the various types of glass from Nailsea, and in his category No. 1 he refers to articles of a 'pale green tinge' as soda-lime glasses, for which, obviously, one constituent was manganese. You'd assume the factory had made various trials and found this was the nearest they could get to a clear glass, and had they introduced a greater quantity of manganese this would have created its own problem by making the glass darker rather than simply de-colourizing the stuff.

As you'd imagine, the recipe for this 'pale green tinge' doesn't include iron oxide - which was however added to the batch when manufacturing bottles (and the manganese was probably omitted) - presumably it was traditional to have dark green or brown for bottles - and probably cheaper to produce. Perhaps no factory had made clear bottles prior to this date??? Why were bottles always dark green or brown??

Vincent suggests that it seems unlikely that flint glass (i.e. clear) was produced at Nailsea - all items examined appear to have the pale green tinge present to some degree - even thinly blown pieces.

You must be very pleased with your charming hat . If you ever find yourself in Bristol then you must pay a visit to the museum with hat in hand ! Not only is there the Nailsea display but there is a large collection of early French paperweights, Bristol blue, green,purple etc. and a very big cabinet full of early drinking glasses.

Owning a possible piece of Nailsea brings a real added interest to reading around and researching the whole subject area .

I have a good basic book entitled 'English Bottles and Decanters 1650-1900' written by Derek Davis , a Letts Collectors Guide ,1972, SBN 850970490.

He talks about the addition of added minerals for colour and pulverised cobalt was imported from Saxony into Bristol . Copper and cobalt was used for Bristol blue, ...copper, iron, chromium for green...nickel and manganese for violet ....calcium,tin,arsenic,fluorspar(what's that?) and phosphate for 'white opal'. ......just thought I'd throw that in

On page 28 there's a straight sided bottle dated 1777, in the description he states that dark bottles made of impure metal could be made cheaply and the darkness of the bottle was thought to protect the wine from daylight. The book doesn't touch on clear/light green Codd mineral bottles though.